As the August 2 deadline closes in, President Obama reversed course on Wednesday and signaled that he’d be open to a short-term debt deal—as long as it’s part of a grander scheme that is “something significant,” according to White House press secretary Jay Carney. In the meantime, Obama is still pushing Congress to pass a deal that would trim future deficits by as much as possible. He’s also instructing Senate leaders to keep working on Senator Mitch McConnell’s backup plan, which would allow the president to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling himself.
